36 percent of Americans agree with Ron Paul on military spending

Ron Paul has gotten a lot of reactions in the GOP nomination race from people who doesn’t agree with him on cuts in military spending. But it turns out that almost 40 percent of Americans actually agree. (AP photo)

Thirty-six percent of Americans think this country is spending too much money on the military and national security, according to a new survey from Rasmussen Reports. In comparison, only 27 percent think the country doesn’t spend enough on the military, and another 27 percent think the country is spending the right amount on the military

When asked if the U.S. should always spend at least three times as much on defense than any other nation to ensure its safety, 47 percent answered no.

Doesn’t it sound kind of familiar?

Doesn’t it kind of sound like Ron Paul?

(The article continues under the video.)

When confronted by Anderson Cooper in the CNN debate in Las Vegas about his proposed cut of 15 percent to the Defense Department without hurting national security, Paul said:

“I don’t want to cut any defense. And you have to get it straight: there’s a lot of money spent in our military budget that doesn’t do any good for our defense.”

“To cut military spending is a wise thing to do,” Paul continued. “We would be safer if we weren’t in so many places. We have an empire, we can’t afford it. Empires always bring great nations down.”

Gary Howard, press secretary for Ron Paul 2012 presidential campaign, is not surprised by the support from Americans.

“The American people realize that we have a serious debt crisis to deal with and cannot afford to continue a foreign policy of spending countless billions oversees in places where our government should not be involved,” Howard says to Texas on the Potomac. “Ron Paul has been one of the few in Washington calling for a serious examination of our military spending, and that is resonating with a lot of people.

However, when floating his ideas like this in the GOP nomination race, Paul has gotten a lot of reactions from people disagreeing strongly. Not surprisingly then, the Rasmussen Report survey shows that a huge share of the people who think that the country spends to much on the military, vote Democratic. 52 percent of Democrats agree with Paul. The same goes for 40 percent of voters not affiliated with any of the major parties, but only 17 percent of Republican voters.